Ted Cruz invokes Ronald Reagan at Texas GOP meet

FORT WORTH, Texas — Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday repeatedly likened today’s political environment to that of the time just before Ronald Reagan was elected, urging Americans to “turn this country around” in a campaign-style speech that even included a nod to his leadership PAC.

The Texas Republican, a favorite of the conservative base, was one of several possible 2016 presidential candidates to appear here at the GOP state convention, a massive affair to which more than 10,000 delegates have been elected. Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke Thursday, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will speak later on Friday.

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“Something incredible is happening, something is sweeping the state of Texas, it’s sweeping every state,” Cruz said. “In 1980, we saw the Reagan Revolution, we saw in the face of stagnation, in the face of feckless, naive foreign policy, in the face of America getting weaker and weaker, we saw a grassroots movement that turned the country around … that same thing is happening today.”

He proceeded to urge the crowd to text the word “growth” to a number he provided. Doing so resulted in a text message that read, “welcome to Senator Ted Cruz updates,” with a link to his leadership PAC, the Jobs, Growth and Freedom Fund.

“What we’re doing is we’re building a grassroots army in Texas and all across this country, of men and women saying, ‘We will not go quietly into the night. We will not give up on the United States of America. We want our freedom,’” he said to cheers.

In the speech, which lasted half an hour, Cruz ran through a number of policy priorities, from repealing “every blessed word” of Obamacare and the Common Core educational standards, to auditing the Federal Reserve and standing with Israel and dissidents around the world. He even struck a populist note, saying, “the rich keep getting richer and richer, and everyone else gets left behind,” while those in the “corrupt, bipartisan cabal in Washington” succeed.

His remarks were repeatedly punctuated with applause in this friendly audience, a good sign for Cruz ahead of the straw poll here slated for Saturday.

Cruz also invoked Reagan in describing his own approach to foreign policy, saying that he supports the late president’s philosophy of peace through strength.

“There was a time when we had another president, like President Obama, we had Jimmy Carter,” he said to boos. ” And all of us remember how quickly things can change.”

The senator, who at times has been a pariah within his own party in Washington and faced tough headlines over his role in the government shutdown last fall, said of Reagan, as he praised him for ending the Cold War: “All of the intelligentsia, all of the cognoscenti, they tittered at such uneducated, Philistine views. He didn’t have the sophistication, he didn’t have the nuance, he didn’t understand detente — which I’m pretty sure is French for surrender.”

“In 1980, Washington, D.C., despised Ronald Reagan,” he said at another point in the speech. “The only way we turn this country around is the American people … each of you on the phone, on email, on Facebook, on Twitter, reaching out to friends and family and neighbors and saying, ‘Bring back the principles that made our nation strong.’”

Cruz also peppered his speech with references to Texas leadership, while also nodding to some of his potential presidential competitors.

“Texans have always led the way in the fight for freedom,” he said. “From Dwight D. Eisenhower to Rick Perry to Rand Paul, all are good, principled men who have stood and fought for freedom. It’s in our blood, it’s who we are.”